A Bottle of Fairly Expensive Vodka
by bryncurrey
Summary: Modern AU. Grantaire/ Eponine He hadn't meant to get jealous, no. But he hadn't meant to go pick up feelings for the girl either. It had happened nonetheless.


**A/N: I totally ship Enjonine, but I really think this pairing would be interesting, because they both seem quite compatible. Modern AU. Hope you enjoy! **

He wasn't really sure when it had become so normal, and he wasn't really sure when it had started, but he did know that he couldn't even remember how many times he had woken up tangled in the bed sheets beside her whilst completely naked and completely in love with her.

In the beginning, sometimes she came over when she was upset. Sometimes when she was miserable. Hardly when she was happy. He liked it best when she was happy. She was happy most of the time now. But not in the beginning. Definitely not in the beginning.

He remembers the first time quite vividly. It was quick. He had been sat on his couch watching countless reruns of _Friends _on his horrible, ancient television when she had opened the door to his apartment and stormed in demanding a drink. He had obliged.

"Married!" she had shouted, "They're getting married! I mean, of course they're getting married. Look at them! With their perfect little life and their perfect little families and their perfect little apartment…" she had spat bitterly, and proceeded to drown half a bottle of fairly expensive vodka.

Time had passed, until they were both quite drunk. Halfway through a rant about Pontmercy, she stopped and looked his way. "I'm invisible, aren't I, R?" she had whispered, "completely invisible."

"You know, sometimes I wish I'd never met him…things would've been so much easier…"

She was the one to start it, the first time. It was messy. Lots of hands and tangled limbs and knocking of teeth, but it was more than either of them had got in a long time. He woke up sprawled across the couch, clothes splayed across the floor. She had taken off before he had awoken, but his phone beeped with one message, sent from her.

_Thank you._

~~0~~

The second time, was impassioned. It was at Courf's birthday celebration, which was held at a hip bar downtown. The whole group had come, and Courf had been ecstatic and probably downright drunk from the beginning. Grantaire had spent most of his time in the corner of the bar with Feuilly and Eponine, half listening to their conversation on Spanish literature or something else along those lines that he had absolutely no interest in whatsoever.

He looked around the room at his friends, who were all laughing, and all happy, and took another large swig of his drink.

Feuilly soon left the two of them alone at the table to go join Courf and Combeferre. Grantaire looked in Eponine's direction. She stared in the general direction of Cosette, who was eagerly showing off her large engagement ring to one of the girls sat at the bar.

"Don't look so down" he said, breaking her out of her trance. She turned her head in the direction of his voice. She looked towards the floor.

"Hope the damned thing breaks her finger" she muttered, "I mean, it's big enough."

"You're right 'bout that" he agreed, offering her the bottle of beer. She accepted, taking an enthusiastic gulp. "The things probably as heavy as Enjolras' ego." The joke made her smile, but she still looked downcast. "Quite tacky as well, if you ask me."

She opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a voice across the room.

"Eponine!" Marius called, obviously slightly tipsy. He was standing beside Cosette and a few faces that Grantaire recognized, but could not name. "Eponine, come over here! I want to introduce you."

"You don't need…" Grantaire started, but Eponine shook her head, standing up.

"No, no, it's fine. It'll be fine" she said, as much to Grantaire as to herself. Grantaire held the bottle to his lips, and took a sip, hoping Marius wouldn't humiliate the girl any more than he already had.

Eponine walked up, and Marius swung his arm over her shoulder. "You've met Cosette, haven't you 'Ponine? My beautiful Cosette?"

Eponine swallowed and opened her mouth to reply, but Cosette spoke first. She smiled a dazzling, radiant, white-toothed smile and took Eponine's hand in her own to shake it. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Eponine" she said.

"Um…you too" Eponine replied rather awkwardly, before Marius interrupted the two of them.

"Cosette, honey, did you know that 'Ponine here was one of my very first friends? A little grimy, but right good company!" Marius said, and Cosette immediately looked uncomfortable and embarrassed for Eponine. Eponine, however, did a good job of hiding. But Grantaire knew that his comment had hurt her. When you're someone's drinking buddy, you get to know which facades are real and which are not.

Eponine just smiled and politely wormed her way out of the conversation, and walked back in the direction of Grantaire. She grabbed him by the arm, and pulled him out of his seat, dragging him towards the bathrooms. He protested quite loudly, but stopped the moment she shut the door to the bathroom.

Mostly due to the fact that she pushed him up against the door, and started to kiss him senseless. Confused, he pushed her away for a moment, looking down at the shorter girl. "Not that I'm complaining," he began, "but what the hell are you doing?"

It was then when he noticed she looked as though she was about to burst into tears. "I just…" she began, "I just…I just need a distraction, like last time" she murmured, leaning into him again, "just…distract me."

And he did distract her. And she him.

She wound her fingers into his hair, and pulled him closer, kissing him as if her life depended on it. He was confused, and had never thought he would have experienced this again, but he did not push her away. No, he did the very opposite.

Her arms were around him, and he was kissing her neck, and she was making these little noises that only made him want it more. More than he should of.

It was just because she had asked him.

He was just helping a friend.

Wasn't he?

Then her head was against the mirror, and his pants had fallen to the floor, and she moaned quietly, her arms draped around his neck. They were both breathing heavily by the end, and the room seemed ten times warmer than when they had entered.

It was good, but it happened all much too fast for both of their likings.

They both readjusted their clothes, made sure their hair wasn't too crazy, and left the bathroom at different times.

They enjoyed the rest of the evening together and with friends, and it was almost as if their bathroom extravaganza had never even happened.

But after the party, she spent the night at his apartment, and that was the first time he had woken up beside her.

~~0~~

It became a sort of pattern after the party. Whenever she was frustrated or upset, she would come over. Whenever he was lonely, he would give her a call. No questions asked. No strings attached. As time progressed, she even was given her own drawer in his wardrobe, just in case she needed to be somewhere in the morning. And sometimes it wasn't just for the sex. Sometimes they would just order Indian food, and watch a crappy movie together just to help both of them forget about their crappy days. Neither of them really talked about it, and that had worked fine between them.

Until one day, he had to go screw up the whole no strings attached thing. He hadn't meant to get jealous, no. He hadn't meant to go and pick up feelings for the girl, either, but it had happened nonetheless.

Nothing had been out of the ordinary, really. They lay on the couch, watching one of the classics Eponine loved so much, when she had brought up Pontmercy. About how she had really thought they might have had a chance before Cosette had come around.

And something inside of him just snapped. The more time he spent with her, the more he disliked Pontmercy, and the more she spoke of him adoringly the more he…ugh. He wasn't supposed to go and get attached.

She seemed to notice his slight annoyance and stopped talking about Pontmercy. Instead, she turned the conversation onto him. "Excuse me, am I bothering you?" she asked, turning her head around from the spot on his lap.

"No, no, it's just…why are you still so attached to Pontmercy? You said you were trying to keep him out of your mind."

She sighed. "I know it's just…" she stopped, very suddenly and looked towards him, eyes suspicious. "Why do you care? You never ask about any of them?"

He immediately felt defensive, and opened his mouth to launch into a completely made up story before she cut him off with a groan and buried her head in his chest.

"Now you've done it" she muttered, and looked up. "We agreed. No strings attached, remember?"

"I know" he said, looking back at the movie, desperate to look at anything but her.

"You weren't supposed to, R…"

But she didn't leave that night, because maybe she didn't want to admit it either, but she liked having him around. She liked the conversation, she liked the sex, and she liked the company. And she didn't want it to stop. No, she didn't think she was in love with him, not yet.

But she did think he was helping her fall out of love with Marius Pontmercy.

~~0~~

Things changed after that brief conversation on the couch. Others started to notice. They noticed things like how he always knew what she was going to order at a restaurant, and what drink she was going to have on a Thursday at nine o'clock pm. They noticed things like she sometimes showed up to parties or meetings wearing one of his many flannels. They also noticed that they seemed to know what the other was going to say. It was hard to say when it turned so domestic, and maybe it was because there was no turning point. Maybe because it was gradual, and there was no dramatic exclamation of "I love you!" Maybe because the first time he had told her he loved her was at six o'clock am in the morning as she ate his honey nut cheerios while wearing one of his over-sized sweaters, and she had replied with "I love you too" as though it was the easiest thing to say in the world.

Yes, sometimes she still got sad, but it was not because Marius Pontmercy did not love her the way she had wanted him to love her, but because she had missed out on what was right in front of her for so many years.

And yes, sometimes he drunk himself into a haze in which he could hardly remember his own name, but it was okay because she was always there to help him.

And yes, of course they fought about stupid things like how he still sometimes thought she loved Marius or how he spent most of the paycheck on gin, but they'd somehow always work it out.

The whole group finally put two and two together when they saw the pair openly kiss at the coffee shop one day. They hadn't even meant to do it, but it was so natural now that it just happened. She had to leave to go to her job at the library, and gave him a quick kiss before leaving the room, not even noticing what she had just done. He was left with the aftermath of the questions and comments, and tried his best to answer all of them quite discreetly.

They went to Marius and Cosette's wedding together, and when Grantaire looked over at Eponine during the ceremony she looked as happy for them as everybody else in the room. During the reception, when he wasn't looking, she took his hand and squeezed. He looked in the direction she was looking, and found himself looking at the bar.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Just look" she encouraged, nudging his shoulder.

That's when he found it. The same fairly expensive vodka they had shared on the night all of it had started.

He squeezed her hand in return.

~~0~~

**A/N: There you go! I know it's not a very big ship, but I just couldn't get this thought out of my mind. **

**Let me know if you want me to write more Eponine/ Grantaire, or if you would like, let me know if you want some Enjolras/ Eponine. **

**Thanks for reading!**

**-Bryn**


End file.
